PaulP Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 I am beginning the cycling of my new JBJ NanoCube. 8lbs of live rock put in on Friday evening, by Sunday morning, the ammonia is off the scale. (over .8, the prettiest color of christmas tree green!). I have a serious die-off, you can tell by the smell and the cloudiness of the water. Currently running lights 8 hrs. I have upgraded lights and having problems keeping temp below 80. I have installed fan but it is only marginable help. Carbon bag is in back Do I have a problem or do I just sit patiently and watch things go south? It does appear to be slightly better, the smell is slightly reduced this am from Sat. evening. Any tips or suggestions Paul P Nano Cube Light mods Lee's skimmer mod surface skimmer mod LED moonlight 12lbs Sand 8lbs LR Link to comment
matt the fiddler Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 do 15-20% water changes ever other day till the ammonia drops. this will weaken the force that the ammonia hits your tank with.. then if it were my tank [once the ammonia is down] i would drop to about weekly changes till the nitrates and nitrites drop, and the cycle is done-- others may say differently though. oh yea- add your base cleaner crew once the ammonia is down too.. they will help cycle, are really cheap in case you loose 1 or 2 durign the cycle, and will aid in keeping pest algaes that start to grow during the first month to a low level ammonia at high levels, will kill off some of what you hope to keep in live rock.. though it will regrow eventually.. but the less die off the better.. Link to comment
phenom5 Posted February 22, 2004 Share Posted February 22, 2004 was you LR uncured? a water change won't hurt, but fear not, stuff will come back after a while. what type of lights? as far as suggestions...sit back, relax, you'll be amazed at how quickly you ammonia drops. one day it'll be through the roof, next day it'll almost be gone... Link to comment
mattie Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 i would just be patient as far as the ammonia goes just do the cycle the old fashioned way nothing to important will die as fro the heat install a fan or 2 and do not be concerned to much if the temp never goes above 84. doing water changes during the cycle is debateble there no wrong way to do it excpet to not wait for it to end before adding livestock Link to comment
PaulP Posted February 23, 2004 Author Share Posted February 23, 2004 Originally posted by phenom5 was you LR uncured? a water change won't hurt, but fear not, stuff will come back after a while. what type of lights?... I can't say if rock was cured or not? bought it at the LFS. Had a big tank of rocks that gets filled about every three weeks. I suspect not but how do you tell? Regarding lights, I am running the stock 24wPC and the add-in 32wPC Paul P Link to comment
matt the fiddler Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 if there was ammonia-- and you didn't let it sit out long.. it was uncured.. Link to comment
phenom5 Posted February 23, 2004 Share Posted February 23, 2004 I can't say if rock was cured or not? bought it at the LFS. Had a big tank of rocks that gets filled about every three weeks. I suspect not but how do you tell? grab a big rock and take a sniff. smells like rot=uncured, smells fresh like the ocean=cured Link to comment
Angry_Babs Posted February 24, 2004 Share Posted February 24, 2004 I believe you should not have your lights on. This will promote algae. Everything Ive read says to keep them off during the cycle. I currently cycling a JBJ Nano. Ive had a LOT of die off. I had to go at the rocks with a toothbrush to remove a lot of the dead organic material yesterday, and did a 50% water change. I plan to do a bi-weekly scrub and change. My Ammonia is off the charts too, christmas tree green as you said. My nitrites are also off the charts. My rock was uncured. It smells pretty bad out of the tank, but it hasn't added a super nasty odor to the room yet. Im only 4 days in, so we shall see. Link to comment
AReeferIsExpensive Posted February 25, 2004 Share Posted February 25, 2004 I thought you should avoid performing water changes durring cycle, it slows the cycle down?? your ammonia is supposed to raise, so i personally let my tank take its natural course so it would end sooner. I would be more worried about leaving my light on for a small amount of time a day, more then i would about a water change to preserve life. If the rock has already been at the LFS sitting in a huge tank of curing rock then im sure its been exposed to a far more higher ammonia boost then whats in your tank. Paul, do you have some powerheads in there? My cycles were 2x faster with a bunch of PHs facing on the rocks. http://www.nano-reef.com/articles/?article=8<~~~check out the last paragraph and g/l! Link to comment
Isaka Posted February 25, 2004 Share Posted February 25, 2004 Nothing abnormal here, don't need to do water changes or anything. Most likely your rock is just uncured and will have more die off than some others. If the smell gets too bad you can always cure it in a bucket in your garage or something. Link to comment
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